1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of electronic commerce, and in particular, to a method for processing multiple electronic shopping carts in an electronic commerce mall.
2. Description of the Related Art
The growth and development of on-line shopping sites, often referred to as xe2x80x9cE-commerce stores,xe2x80x9d has resulted in the conception of an electronic shopping cart. Advantages of the electronic shopping cart concept include the provision of an easily recognizable icon which provides to the electronic commerce shopper a familiar metaphor in which to place articles selected for purchase. Moreover, the electronic shopping cart concept allows software engineers who develop on-line shopping sites to treat this element of the shopping experience as an independent object. To date, the single store, on-line shopping experience includes only one electronic shopping cart per shopper. Still, the on-line shopping paradigm has been extended to include the concept of an xe2x80x9cE-Commerce Mallxe2x80x9d, that is, an aggregation of many E-commerce stores.
To assist the electronic commerce shopper in navigating the E-Commerce Mall, software engineers have implemented a universal electronic shopping cart, recognizable by each retailer in the E-Commerce Mall. In other words, when an electronic commerce shopper enters the E-Commerce Mall, the electronic commerce shopper uses a single electronic shopping cart in all E-commerce stores situated in the E-Commerce Mall. As the electronic commerce shopper tours each E-commerce store, the electronic commerce shopper can place store items selected for purchase in the universal electronic shopping cart. At the conclusion of the electronic commerce shopper""s shopping experience, the mall operator can check-out each store item in the electronic commerce shopper""s universal electronic shopping cart. Subsequently, the E-Commerce Mall operator must reconcile the transaction with each E-commerce Store from whom the electronic commerce shopper has purchased store items.
The E-Commerce Mall concept represents a business proposition between each E-commerce store and the E-Commerce Mall operator. For example, E-commerce store tenants likely pay xe2x80x9crentxe2x80x9d to the E-Commerce Mall operator. Still, certain components of the business process resist centralization and remain localized among each E-commerce store, for instance inventory, fulfillment, and billing. The universal shopping cart paradigm ignores this reality, requiring the E-Commerce Mall operator to manage fulfillment and billing. Moreover, inventory, fulfillment, billing and related processes are triggered by the E-commerce store checkout event and not the E-Commerce Mall checkout event.
Practicalities of the market place impose limitations upon how, when and in what order financial settlements and business processes occur. Thus, while the concept of a universal electronic shopping cart used throughout an E-Commerce Mall may facilitate the electronic commerce shopper""s E-Commerce shopping experience, the universal electronic shopping cart concept increases the burden upon both the mall operator and each E-Commerce Store.
There is a long-felt need to reconcile the conflicting requirements of the electronic commerce shoppers, the E-Commerce Stores and the E-Commerce Mall operator.
The long-felt need to reconcile the conflicting requirements of electronic commerce shoppers, the E-Commerce Stores and the E-Commerce Mall operator is met in accordance with the inventive arrangement. In accordance with the inventive arrangements multiple store-level electronic shopping carts [xe2x80x9cvirtual ledgersxe2x80x9d] are processed in an E-commerce mall [xe2x80x9cmallxe2x80x9d]. The concept of the electronic shopping cart is extended to increase processing flexibility for mall participants [xe2x80x9celectronic commerce shoppersxe2x80x9d] by the creation of an electronic shopping basket for a mall that can contain within it virtual ledgers respectively associated with all stores in the mall. The subject invention enables implementors to process all virtual ledgers at the mall-level without sacrificing the collection of purchase data for each store-level transaction, typically associated with the processing of the virtual ledger at the store-level. This scheme is consistent with modern business processes, such as monetary transactions and inventory tracking, which are dependent upon the electronic shopping cart paradigm and are triggered upon a store-level checkout. Thus, a particular advantage of the present invention is that electronic commerce shoppers are provided with the convenience of the single payment transaction for all shopping in the virtual mall, and at the same time, the virtual stores can receive data to update respective point of sale systems.
A method for managing electronic commerce in a virtual mall having a plurality of virtual stores which can be accessed by electronic commerce shoppers, comprises the steps of: assigning to each electronic commerce shopper an electronic shopping basket; placing each electronic commerce shopper into at least one of the virtual stores; collecting purchase data for each store item selected for purchase by each electronic commerce shopper; processing payment for all store items selected for purchase by each electronic commerce shopper in a single transaction; and, supplying the purchase data collected for each store item selected for purchase by each electronic commerce shopper to the respective virtual store with which the store items are associated.
The collecting step further includes assigning to each electronic commerce shopper a virtual ledger for each virtual store visited by the electronic commerce shopper; storing in each of the virtual ledgers purchase data for all store items selected for purchase in one virtual store by one electronic commerce shopper; and, associating all of the virtual ledgers in which each electronic commerce shopper selects at least one article for purchase with each electronic commerce shopper""s electronic shopping basket in a manner transparent to each electronic commerce shopper.
A computer-based data processing system for managing electronic commerce in a virtual mall having a plurality of virtual stores which can be accessed by electronic commerce shoppers, each virtual store having at least one store item, includes: a plurality of electronic shopping baskets, each electronic shopping basket corresponding to a single electronic commerce shopper; a plurality of virtual ledgers for each virtual store visited by each electronic commerce shopper, each virtual ledger having purchase data for the store items selected for purchase in one virtual store by one electronic commerce shopper; and a first means for associating all of the virtual ledgers in which each electronic commerce shopper has selected at least one store item for purchase with each electronic commerce shopper""s corresponding electronic shopping basket in a manner transparent to each electronic commerce shopper.
The computer-based data processing system can further include a second means for processing payment for all store items contained in all virtual ledgers associated with a single one of the electronic shopping baskets in a single transaction. Furthermore, the computer-based data processing system can include a third means for supplying the purchase data for all store items contained in all virtual ledgers associated with a single one of the electronic shopping baskets in a single transaction to each respective virtual store with which the virtual ledgers are associated.